Happily Overwhelmed

So, to be honest, I’m overwhelmed just thinking about writing a blog post… I really need to keep up better so I don’t fret over every last detail of the past few weeks each time I post. Argh.

And It’s not because I’m overly exhausted… (Okay, maybe I’m a little tired. It IS after 8:30, afterall). I’m just kind of feeling stressed about how fast everything is moving. Don’t you ever wish you had a pause button? I suppose that thinking that your pregnancy is going by quickly is a good thing. If I was sick 24/7, I’m sure it’d feel like January was nowhere in sight.

But that’s not the case… In just a short three and a half months, we have a bazillion things to do, it seems! And in between the fun stuff (decorating the nursery, registering, reading pregnancy books), there’s a ton of boring stuff (like huge projects at work) I have to put my energy into as well. I suppose this is the beginning of the figuring-out of the work-life balance thing. Oh, and I need to relax. And daydream. Duh.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve been up to lately…

The beach!

On Labor Day weekend, we joined Kathe (Ryan’s mom), Harald (stepfather), Meghan (sister) and Dane (sister’s husband) in Destin, Florida. Even though we arrived to the wrath of tropical storm Lee (and by wrath, I mean rain, crazy 60-mph winds and tornado warnings), we had a terrific time with Ryan’s family, and we even enjoyed two days on the beach, in the sun.

Speaking of the sun, I learned a major lesson on the trip: When you’re pregnant, use at LEAST SPF 45 sunblock, and reapply often. I stupidly thought that my usual SPF 30 routine would do, but I should’ve heeded all of the advice from my pregnancy books. I’m pretty sure my feet and parts of my legs are now permanently a purplish hue. And I’ve been peeling so bad on my forehead that I’m sure strangers (or non-strangers) feel bad for me and my bad case of “dandruff”.

So yeah, wear sunblock, preggers. And remind me to next time (since I’ll surely forget).

Hospital tour #2!

Last Saturday, Ryan and I toured Centennial Hospital, the second (and last) hospital we had planned to tour. The hospital was fine, and like I’ve mentioned before, I’d be happy delivering at either hospital. However, both Ryan and I just had this feeling while we were on the tour at Centennial - we knew that Baptist was our hospital. Nothing against Centennial… We just had a better feeling about Baptist. The warmth and friendliness at Baptist are what really sold us, I believe.

So, it’s been decided… If everything goes as planned, Baby Winkle will make his debut at Baptist Hospital in Nashville!

Showers/registering!

Speaking of time FLYING… It’s time to register! We have two showers coming up quickly. The first, thrown by Ryan’s dad and Sherry, will be October 8th. We just found out about this (and the accompanying drive to Tulsa) today, hence the unprepared registry. We figured we’d leisurely put together our registry throughout the next month, which would leave us plenty of time to spare before our November 13th Nashville shower (thrown by Linny and Ali). Now we have a tighter deadline, which is probably good for us. It’ll force us to get it done.

Nesting!

We’ve really had a lot going on around our house lately… Lots of cleaning, rearranging, paining and organizing. While I was in Atlanta on business Monday and Tuesday, Ryan (with the help of Ali, Pete and Linny) painted the entire upstairs of our house (which includes the nursery, our bedroom, a living room and a bathroom). It looks fabulous and totally deserves its own post (with pictures!). So, stay tuned.

Dance party USA!

Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve noticed more and more movement. He’s either having a dance party, practicing for his Olympic gymnastic team try-out, or something similar. And his favorite time to do so seems to be late at night and very, very early in the morning. It’s such a cool thing… If I wake up to use the bathroom at 4 in the morning and return to bed to find Baby Winkle moving around, I may or may not fall back asleep before my alarm sounds at 7. I could just lay there and feel him move around forever.

Last, but not least… my 23-week belly pic (beach addition) follows:

No jalapenos, please! (Weekly happenings + Belly pic!)

The past week and a half has been quite busy for us… We were lucky enough to attend the first Titans preseason game (We won, unlike last weekend’s game. Ugh.). This was obviously my first Titans game since I’ve been pregnant (If you don’t know, I’m a huge nut for football.). We had a little way to walk, which I figured would count as my “moderate exercise” for the day - Score! The walk from the car to the stadium wasn’t bad… It was the heat + walking up the ramps to the upper deck that was quite different. I was lagging a little behind our group, and I had to stop a couple times to catch my breath. I made it - albeit sweaty and mildly out of breath - and it was worth it as always. Preseason games aren’t as exciting as regular season games, obviously, but we had a blast, and the weather was actually pretty nice, thanks to the 7 p.m. kickoff time.

I learned something at the game, however… Something I wish I could’ve learned an easier way (I’ll spare you the details… Just use your imagination): I absolutely cannot eat jalapenos while pregnant. I realize that my 2-4 a.m. sickness could’ve had to do with any of the other things I had to eat that day (cheeseburger, milkshake, etc.), but I just know that it was the spicy jalapenos that got me. I even remember turning to my sister and saying “Wow! These are some HOT jalapenos” as I continued to devour the entire tray of nachos, throwing caution to the wind. Lesson learned. Oops.

Anyway, here are a couple pics from the game:

I was kinda laid-up on Sunday due to my tummy troubles. I did make it out to Babies R Us, though. I had been really wanting to purchase a couple things for Baby Winkle (BW) ever since the ultrasound. Luckily, Linny came with me, and she gave me the low-down on random brands/products during our two-hour tour of the store. It may not sound like fun, but we really had a blast (Right, Linny?). We repeated the same at TJMaxx and Target, and after our three stops, BW had a few new things: a super cute blue and black striped DKNY Baby onesie, a set of Carter’s onesies (They look like they’re made out of long johns material - whatever you call that - Super cute!), and a blue and green oh-so-soft elephant blanket that I couldn’t resist. Shopping for BW is so fun! I can’t wait to do more!!

Fast-forward to Thursday… We went to Hillwood Strike & Spare for a little bowling. A co-worker had given me a couple Groupons to use (How nice!), so Ryan and I enjoyed a couple free games of bowling (After I Googled “bowling safe pregnancy” and found out that, yes, bowling is perfectly safe during pregnancy, LOL.). I was completely surprised at how cheap their rates are on Thursday, though… $5.50 for shoes and two games. Cheap, huh? The place was also pretty clean-ish, and it wasn’t terribly crowded. Oh, and for all of the non-pregnant people, they have $2 beers from 7-9 p.m. We were all quite pleased with Hillwood Strike & Spare, to say the least.

We all bowled pretty well… I was especially proud of tying with Ryan during the second game (He will probably deny this, but I have witnesses!).

After the bowling, we decided to check out the “Circus World” of the place. Sounds intriguing, huh? We played a few games of Skee-Ball (a personal favorite) and then the three non-pregnant people decided they wanted to give the bumper cars a spin. BUMPER CARS!! I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in YEARS. I was nearly doubled over in laughter, y’all. BW was surely all “WTF is my mom doing?!”

The last thing I’ll leave you with are a couple milestones and belly pics…

• Found out that I absolutely cannot eat jalapenos (my first real food aversion/mishap) on Aug. 13.
• First items purchased for BW on Aug. 14.
• Felt first kicks from outside (OMG!) on Aug. 18th, which was absolutely crazy! I didn’t believe it at first, but Ryan (Who was luckily right beside me, therefore able to feel a couple kicks) assured me that there was no way that what we were feeling was anything other than kicks.

So here are our (Ryan didn’t want to be left out!) 20-week belly pics, taken on Sunday:

My Fit and Firm Pregnancy... Err...

I’ve always tried to work out regularly… Like many other “normal” people, I’ve sometimes failed to meet my personal workout goals, but surely enough, I’d hop back on the workout train as soon as an sliver of motivation struck. Pre-pregnancy, I was very much enjoying the East Nasty running club, and I was so proud of the progress that Ryan, Linny and I were making each week. By mid-April of this year, four miles was a piece of cake to us. In between the weekly runs, I tried to walk or do a yoga routine as often as possible.

Once I became pregnant, though, I knew I’d have to make some changes to my routine. I realized that people who had been running a few miles three or four times a week (and had been doing so for years) were perfectly capable continuing to run. However, since I had only been running once a week for a few months, I knew that I’d have to cut out my beloved Wednesday runs. I also knew I’d have to swap my Crunch Fitness Fat-Burning Yoga for a prenatal yoga workout.

Since I knew that exercise during pregnancy would be so very important and beneficial (for me and for baby) while pregnant, I was anxious to jump into my new routine. I knew I wanted to incorporate as much walking as possible. (Walking is, after all, the most perfect low-impact workout, it seems.) The walks were fun for awhile, but the string of 100-degree days throughout this summer has really taken the joy (and possibly the safety) out of my after-work walks. So, I moved on to DVDs. My first pregnancy workout was Crunch Yoga Mama.

I did my research, and discovered that Yoga Mama would be an easy, relaxed prenatal yoga workout. What I did not discover before my first workout was how weird it would be. First of all, I felt so odd… I was probably only four or five weeks pregnant at that point, and I was watching these obviously-pregnant woman doing these poses, navigating around their huge bellies. I had no belly. I didn’t even look pregnant. Also, the instructor says “your baby” no less than a million times (or so it seems). She continuously says things like “This will help you connect with your baby,” and “Guess who’s doing yoga with you? Your baby.” I realize this sounds very sweet and all, but really… When I was first pregnant, I wasn’t feeling all of this talk, and to be honest, it kind of made me feel inadequate for not having this connection that these women had with their babies. Nevertheless, I have done the workout at least once a week since then, and I’ve really grown to like it. I’m not sure if I’ve started to subconsciously ignore the commentary, or if I just feel that I have grown in my pregnancy to have more of a connection with my baby, therefore making me feel more adequate to be working out with these super-moms. It really is a pretty good, gentle workout, so I’m happy with it.

The other DVD I have on rotation is Denise Austin’s Fit & Firm Pregnancy, which I really love. Denise is a freak (which I’m sure you know if you’ve done any of her workouts), but I kind of love her for it. Sure, she makes me feel like a loser when she tells me that she worked out “every day”, when she was pregnant both times, including the day she delivered her first. (FREAK!) But other than that, I really love the video and I love the flexibility of the workouts (the DVD includes a cardio workout, along with second trimester toning, third trimester toning and post-natal workouts). The funniest thing about the workout, hands down, is this crazy pregnant chick who is really, really excited and way too into the moves (she’s the one in the blue top on the far left in the photo above). She reminds me of a seventh-grader trying out for the cheerleading squad who has all the enthusiasm but is lacking any coordination.

I’d recommend either of these workouts, though, and as an added bonus, they can be entertaining (crazy blue top lady). They’re both easy enough and the right amount of difficulty, for me at least. Hopefully in a few weeks I can get back to walks as well - I’m officially over the summer and ready for cooler fall weather.

Also, if anyone has any pregnancy workout tips/tricks, please share them!